User satisfactions and perceptions of crowding in four Adirondack wilderness areas

The purpose of the paper is to study the inverse relationship between user perceptions of crowding and satisfaction with the wilderness experience. The relationship between user perceptions of crowding and trip satisfaction was studied in four state wilderness areas in the Adirondack Park during the summer of 1997. High Peaks Wilderness, Siamese Ponds Wilderness, Ha-Da-Ron-Dah Wilderness, and the St. Regis Canoe Area. User perceptions of crowding were correlated (low negative coefficients) with user satisfaction on the wilderness trip experience. However, the appropriateness of using single measures of satisfaction and crowding was questioned since only a small proportion of the total variance was explained in the models constructed.